Gamecocks Earn Win To Even Series At LSU
Carolina overcomes two deficits to earn thrilling win
BATON ROUGE, LA. —- No. 16 South Carolina softball overcame two deficits in a thrilling 7-5 victory over No. 8 LSU on Saturday night at Tiger Park. The win marked Carolina’s highest ranked road victory since 2014 and evened the series at 1-1.
With the Tigers leading 4-2 through two, Carolina scored four runs in the top of the fourth to take the 6-4 lead it wouldn’t surrender as the Gamecocks earned their third ranked win of the season.
Carolina will look to take its first three-game series in Baton Rouge tomorrow on ESPNU.
South Carolina (25-9, 3-7 SEC) refused to panic as LSU took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first. Instead, the Gamecocks chose to tie the game at 2-2 in the top of the second.
The scoring started in the fame as Lauren Stewart stole second and forced an errant throw that allowed Alex Fulmer to score and cut the deficit to 2-1. Alexis Lindsey’s sacrifice fly out later in the inning tied the game at 2-2.
LSU (30-7, 8-3) once again proved to be tough out as it scored two more in the bottom of the second to take its final lead of the night at 4-2.
From there, Carolina decided it was time to take over with four runs in the top of the third.
Kennedy Clark and Stewart walked home runs with bases loaded before Lindsey singled through the left side to score two and give Carolina a 6-4 lead through three.
The Tigers scored one in the bottom of the sixth to cut the Gamecock lead to 6-5 before Clark scored on a Jordan Fabian single in the top of seventh to extend the lead to 7-5.
LSU got a runner on in the seventh but Dixie Raley (8-2) wasn’t worried. She finished off the Tigers with a foul fly out to Jana Johns at third and a groundout to Mackenzie Boesel at second to give the Gamecocks their sixth ever win in Baton Rouge.
Raley earned the victory in the circle going all seven innings with four strikeouts.
Cayla Drotar and Fabian finished the contest with multiple hits while Lindsey posted three RBI. Boesel, Johns, Drotar, Fulmer, Clark and Stewart scored runs.
- Three seems to be the magic number. Kennedy Clark, Cayla Drotar, Jordan Fabian and Lauren Stewart all have a team-best three hits through the first two games of the series. Alexis Lindsey has a Carolina-best four RBI.
- The series couldn’t be much tighter thus far. Both teams have taken a game and have 18 hits each while LSU is leading just 13-12 in runs scored.
- Carolina needs four runs tomorrow to have its most runs in an SEC series this year. Carolina had 15 at Arkansas.
- The Gamecocks improved to 3-2 over LSU in the last five meetings between the two teams.
- Two of the three ranked wins this season have come on the road.
